


There's No Place Like Home

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Newsroom Fanfiction Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:07:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: For Lilac Mermaid's October 2016 Fan Fiction Challenge -- Home!  Part of the challenge suggested trying to tell the story from the perspective of the house.  I couldn't make that work (believe me I tried), so I did this instead.This is a collection of snapshots during Will and Mac's relationship that show how their ideas of home changed them as their homes changed.
Relationships: Will McAvoy/MacKenzie McHale
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	There's No Place Like Home

**2005**

“Is that what it’s like to live on a farm in Alaska?”

Will looked at Mac who laid on the couch next to him, her head in his lap. She smiled back, obviously remembering the first time he mentioned growing up in Nebraska and she said she heard Alaska and then gave him shit about his diction. He told her that she needed a hearing aid because his diction is perfect. She explained that she's not the one who's about a hundred years old. This was the closest she’s ever come to admitting she heard him wrong. 

“ _Ne_ braska is in the boring Midwest where the seasons are planting, harvest and snow. Tara was in the deep south where they celebrated cotillion and a hundred or so other events on an annual social calendar. Depending on where you landed in their caste system.”

“So, you never learned to dance or be a perfect gentleman? That actually explains a lot.”

Will wanted to find the perfect comeback, but instead decided to try to catch her off guard, “I had a boy scout leader who taught us all how to tap dance for some merit badge.”

Mac did a double take while sitting up and folding her hands on his shoulder and resting her chin on it. “You’re making that up.”

Will shook his head. “Nope, I was 12 and I learned the shuffle, ball change and single buffalo.”

Mac sat up a little straighter. “Show me.”

Will laughed. “I don’t have the right shoes.”

She challenged him this time. “I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to. But I’ll have you know no one got the Single Buffalo like I did.”

This made Mac laugh loudly, which made him laugh just as loud. When they both calmed down, she asked, “did you really learn tap?”

“Scouts honor. How about you? Any hidden talents I don’t know about?”

Mac cocked her head as she thought. “Not really. We never stayed in one place for long to nurture any talents.” She looked at Will. “I got to travel the world with my parents until boarding school, and then I spent summers anywhere you can think of, but never had anywhere that I could dwell for more than a few months.”

“Hmmm. It’s not romanticized like old movies make it look.”

This made Mac think. “Huh. Have you ever noticed that two of the most popular movies, probably ever, have home as a theme. Tara is where Scarlet gets her power. There’s nothing she can’t face as long as she spends some time at her home. Dorothy on the other hand, had all her important relationships at home. That’s what life was like for you growing up, wasn’t it? Alaska is just next to Kansas, you ever go over the rainbow?”

Will mentally flinched before carefully saying, “Nebraska is above Kansas. And like I said, Hollywood romanticizes smelly chicken coops and pig pens. Life on a farm is all about getting your chores done on time.”

Mac loved the idea of home too much to let this go, “You had to have relationships like that with your family. An Auntie Em, that took care of you. Farm hands around that helped you out. Winter season at the house, playing cards and board games every night. Do you ever miss it?”

Will stood up to clean some of the dishes and popcorn bags that accumulated on the coffee table. “That’s not how I remember it. I think 1939 was a simpler time than when I left.”

“Didn’t you leave home around then?” Mac laughed as Will threw a pillow from the couch at her while she helped to gather their mess with him. “Seriously, you don’t talk about home much.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. It was lots of long days and getting on each other’s nerves. Hard work and impossible deadlines when the weather permitted. Questions about whether the crop would be worth anything. I miss my brother and sisters, but I don’t miss much else.”

Mac sensed that she hit a nerve and didn’t want to press any further. “I guess I just want to believe in the fantasy that Hollywood pedals in case I ever decide to settle down.” She heard what she said and quickly added, “not that I’m planning to settle down. There’s more world to see, more stories to tell. I don’t need to be tied to anything. Or anyone.”

Will looked at her with a half-smile, “Well, I hope you don’t get bored here too soon.”

**2006**

Will got to the studio earlier than he expected and decided to watch the end of Mac’s show from the control room. He never got to see the show put together from this angle and thought it may be interesting. He looked around, not knowing what any of this equipment did. He understood enough tech speak since he heard it in his ear every afternoon during his show, but to see someone respond when they heard these commands, he got a new appreciation for what happens back here. 

But he didn’t spend a lot of time admiring that, instead, he watched Mac’s backside. Even without seeing her face, he could tell how focused she was on the monitors and the rundown on the podium in front of her. Her voice had a command tone to it that let him know that alerting her to his presence would not be welcome. 

“Don’t let him get away with that.” Hearing her press her anchor made him proud. They’ve had conversations before about what she believes is the role of a news anchor, so seeing her stand here telling her anchor what to do made him smile. There wasn’t a single gram of her that wasn’t sincere, that wouldn’t tell the whole truth. As he looked around and saw her give a hand signal and one of the men at a console did something in response, he realized that there wasn’t a centimeter of this place that wasn’t completely hers. She belonged here like a dish belongs in a China cabinet.

“Go back! Say…”

The man next to Will said, “Look out, here it comes.”

He saw her tap the belt pack she wore and then she yelled out, “Asshole! Ask the damn follow up! You can’t be a facilitator for whatever bullshit he wants to feed the viewers! God how STUPID can you be?!”

Will laughed as quietly as he could, cheering her on. She tapped her belt pack again and said, “Don’t you go short on me.” Will’s EP would never say such things during a show. Pete saw his job as feeding Will information, seeing Mac work in such a different way made him wonder what working with someone that would push him would be like. He wondered what working with her, knowing that this is where she belongs, where she feels most alive and empowered, he wondered what that would do to their burgeoning romance. The idea gave him pause. He’s never thought of their relationship like that, but that doesn’t make it untrue. They’ve been together for a little over a year. And obviously he’s not going anywhere and neither is she. 

“Okay everyone, that’s commercial. After the Cavemen are done hawking whatever the fuck they sell, we’ll get back to stupid cats and why the fuck we watch Youtube.” The room started laughing. 

One of the guys turned to Will and said, “That’s not the name of the story.” Will smiled and nodded his head. 

Mac finally turned around and seemingly stared right through Will, “Gus have that package ready. Tommy, can you keep an ear out for the tintiness we sometimes hear. I’ve heard it a couple times. Is someone messing with your settings?”

“No, I swapped out mics before the show and thought I had it. I’ll keep trying.”

“Do you need to do a soundcheck now?”

Tommy looked at the monitors. “He looks like he’s studying his script. I can get it live.”

“He has a two-sentence intro, he shouldn’t have to think too hard about this,” she said frustrated under her breath. “Are you sure you can get it then?”

“Package is 2:23,” said another voice.

Mac did the mental math and tapped her belt pack. “Kyle, we’re having an issue with your upper range. During the package, be ready for a sound check.” Kyle nodded his head. “Everyone else OK?” Everyone agreed. Mac finally looked at Will and started walking toward him, “Mr. McAvoy, what are you doing slumming in the control room with the late morning people?” She put her arms around him and gave him a quick peck on the lips. 

“I wanted to take you to lunch and got here early so I thought I’d watch you work.”

“I’m not sure if that’s creepy.” Mac saw Will smile and she smiled giddily back. “So, what do you think?”

“You look very at home here.”

“It’s like a second home.” She said it sarcastically, but Will picked up that there was more truth in the statement than she would ever admit. 

“Does that make us your work children?”

Mac looked at Tommy who she forgot was there. “I wouldn’t have kids as ugly as you.”

Gus laughed and said, “She’s not wrong.”

Another voice said, “Hate to break this up, but 30 seconds back.”

Mac tapped her belt pack. “30 seconds, introduce the cats and then we’ll do a quick sound check, wrap up and then the last commercial.” The anchor tapped his pen on the desk twice.

Tommy turned to Will again and said, “that tap means he understands.”

Gus said, “He’s an anchor, he knows.” 

Tommy looked at Will again and said, “You are? He took a closer look and said, “oh, you’re the afternoon guy. What are you doing here?”

Gus said, “5, 4, 3,” Then he whispered, “He’s dating Mac and wanted to take her to lunch.”

Tommy looked between Will and Mac. “Oh, okay. I didn’t know she was dating anyone.”

Mac, who had moved back to professional mode, looked over her shoulder. “Quiet, our anchor is concentrating.”

Everyone in the control room looked at each other and started laughing. Mac tapped her belt mic. “We’re going to need a second before we start this sound check.”

**2007**

Will looked around the bedroom that he wasn’t sure he’d be allowed to enter. Mac told him that her parents were conservative, but he assumed they understood that when two people have been together for a couple years now, they probably don’t always sleep in separate beds. It was a misunderstanding, and Will is trying to have a laugh about it, but, he can’t help feeling like the ambassador hates him and that the only reason he isn’t on the next plane back to the United States is because Mac gave her father a look and no one is strong enough to counter that look. 

As he looked at the pictures of Mac and her siblings as small children, he picked out the ones he thought were Mac and studied them. He was 16 when she was born. If she was 5 in the picture with the pigtails, he was just finishing law school. Starting his career while she was starting school. She’d been to 12 countries by then while he was planning to move into the third place he ever lived and hasn’t moved out of yet. 

She said that she never lived in this house. After her father retired, her parents decided to settle in Surrey. They loved the area. She did too. The McHales spent a summer or two in the town. Driving from The Tube to the house, Will could see what they saw in the town, it was breathtakingly beautiful. It had charm that he didn’t see in the apartments in New York or the farm houses in Nebraska. He could imagine living a life here. Having a wife, kids. All the wide-open area and the idyllic things to do. They watch horse races here. They have woodland. They have walk paths and rivers. Kids would love it here. At least he thinks they would. He’s not real sure what kids enjoy, but he thinks they would enjoy life here, where they can play outside in the fresh air and nearby rivers. 

“What are you thinking about?”

Will didn’t hear her walk in, so he jumped, making her laugh. “What I’m going to say if your father asks me what my intentions are toward his little girl.”

“Oh, God, he didn’t, did he?”

“He came fucking close. I wouldn’t be surprised if I get a man to man talk here soon.”

Mac looked horrified. “It’s their 45th anniversary, when’s a better time to drop hints about… oh God. I’ll talk to him.”

“Now wait a second. Is the idea of marrying me so repulsive?”

Mac put her head in her hands, “Oh, God. No, Will it’s not, but—”

Will laughed. “Mac, it’s okay. I can be honest with him. You’re into women and I’m just your beard.”

Mac’s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she stood silent for a minute. “Don’t you dare, Alaska. I – I.”

“You’re part of my harem. Have a few sister-wives back in Utah.”

“Why did I bring you?”

“Because I have a nice ass. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”

Mac looked at his back side. “It’s starting to get a little saggy. You might want to start lifting heavy objects.”

“Like you?” With that, Will picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. He did a couple squats and then dropped her on the bed where they laid next to each other. They smiled and laughed as they held hands. Finally, Will said, “Have you thought about what you want? You know, with us?”

Mac took a second and thought about it. “I can’t imagine a future without you. But if it came with a big house that needs to be cleaned and kids that need to be taken care of and… I’ve never been good at being somewhere for a long time. I’ve been in New York longer than I’ve been anywhere, and it’s only been two years.”

“Maybe I can travel the world with you. Cover stories that only the media elite go out and do. Wars, pestilence, plagues, you know the good stuff.”

Mac laughed. “You wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a tent with bombs going off around you.”

Will shrugged his shoulders. “So, we’ll find a 5-star hotel near the pestilence.”

Mac laughed squeezed his cheeks. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Will looked around the room and out the window. “You know, this wouldn’t be a bad place to make a home.”

“It’s lacking in pestilence and plagues.”

“No place is perfect.”

“I heard about a lab in Wuhan that might be able to help us.”

The two looked at each other and at the same time started laughing. 

**2008**

Mac looked around… at her bunk. Last year, she was giggling with Will about this being their life. She didn’t see a future that didn’t have him in it. Even if he wouldn’t enjoy this work, this is the work that she chose. She can’t even convince herself of that lie. She was exiled. She told the truth and he banished her from his life. He fired her from her job. This is the type of job she always wanted. Out in the field where she could tell the important stories. It’s not the posh studio, telling people what to say or how to say it. She gets to live it. She gets to go deep into the stories. This is the qualitative news coverage, not quantitative. It’s means depth, it means features and making sure people know what’s really happening not just the surface level 30 second soundbites. It’s what she went into journalism to do. 

But while that’s all true, it’s not what she wants. Not anymore. She gave up a man who was thinking about making a home with her, for this. For army barracks and a camera man. How can this be home? She thought about a night a few years ago. A conversation about… old movies. Scarlett O’Hara drew strength from her home. She could face anything as long as she got some time at home. Dorothy Gale wanted to leave Oz to go home to see her family and friends. The people made home for her. Will didn’t tell her then about his childhood home, but she learned that he grew up feeling like as much of an orphan as she did. She had people, but no physical anchor to call the place that she belonged. He had the place, but not the people who made him feel safe and wanted and loved. They became that for each other. And now, somehow, this place has to become that for her. 

At least for now. Assignments like this don’t last forever. She’ll get a new one in months or years. And then she’ll face the next war or bout of pestilence or plague. Wherever the news takes her. The news is her anchor. It’s the thing that keeps her going. It’s the one constant in her life. 

**2009**

Will looked around his new apartment. 2 Hudson Place. He made sure he had a view of the Statue of Liberty. He didn’t get the penthouse, but with his new salary as the anchor of the ACN flagship show, he got pretty close. He has a wall with 9 flat screen TVs. He’ll never be without a sporting event to watch. This is the life that everyone dreams of having. He made it. His life is complete. His walls are white, because he’s a minimalist. The important pictures are in his office because he spends more time there than here. But when he’s here… what else could he ask for?

He grew up in a town outside a town outside Lincoln, Nebraska. He lived in the same 2-bedroom farm house until he graduated from college. And he did that early. He got out. He went to Columbia for law school and rented the cheapest apartment he could find for two years. He became a prosecutor in Brooklyn and found a modest place to live. He never saw a reason to move. Not when he ran for DA. Not when he could telecommute to work in the Bush 41 White House. He almost moved when he got his first job with Charlie, but it seemed like a hassle and there was a lot going on then. When CNN called, he still lived close to a subway stop, why would he move? But now, he has a place to live that matches his status. Only successful people live this high up, looking at the Statue of Liberty. 

This is what he deserves. If this is the place that he dies in, he can die a happy man. What else could he ask for in a home?

**2010**

Charlie asked her what she wants. What does a woman who spends her days getting drunk in a bowling alley want? She hemmed and hawed. She didn’t have an answer, but Charlie listened and he determined that all her babbling added to, she wanted to go home. She didn’t know what that meant. Was that a place? Four walls and a ceiling? Or was it a person? A person, God help her, she still saw a future with, even if he wrote her off. Was it an energy giver? Or relationships? Would proximity to him be enough to make it home. Will thought her true home was a control room. A tiny control room with a handful of smelly men that she could laugh with. Which isn’t much different from the soldiers that taught her to play cards and shoot a gun. 

She wanted to go home, she agreed with Charlie. She instinctively knew that. She just didn’t know what home was. She didn’t know how it would work without the person she most wanted there with her. 

**2011**

Nina came to his place one night and said, “This is starting to feel like a regular thing.”

“It is starting to feel that way, isn’t it?”

“So do you think you’ll keep me around for a little bit, or –” She didn’t finish the sentence, she knew that he understood the question.

“Mackenzie isn’t an issue. I loved her, but I can’t trust her, and that’s why she’s not here and you are.”

Nina nodded her head. She believed him. Or at least she believed that he believed what he said. “Can I bring some things over? You know, make this palace of tidiness look like a home, like someone actually lives here?”

He should say yes. He wants to share his life and he’s with her. Mac spruced up his place. She had pictures that she hung. He remembered the pictures at her parent’s house. It made it feel more intimate, like it was more than just a place to sleep and occasionally eat. But something didn’t feel right, and he didn’t know what it was. He didn’t want to lose his white walls. He didn’t want her to junk up his flat surfaces. He didn’t mind her taste, but he didn’t want it in his… he didn’t want it here. 

“Next time we’re at your place, we can look at what you want to bring over and decide on a case by case basis.” He said it with a smirk. He didn’t want her to know if he was serious or not. Partly because he didn’t know. Maybe a touch here or there wouldn’t be horrible. Maybe it would make it feel more like… more.

“You don’t have to say yes, Will. If we’re not there yet, we’re not there yet.”

“We are, I just… We are.”

Nina laughed. “If you could see the relief on your face when I let you off the hook, you would know that we aren’t.”

**2012**

Will woke up and looked over, smiling when he saw Mac in his bed. Nothing happened last night when they got home after the party. He actually had to carry her in because she fell asleep in the car. But he told her that he wanted to wake up this morning and she be the first thing he saw. She of course rolled her eyes and agreed to get her go bag. After explaining to the door man that she wasn’t drugged, but exhausted, he stood in the elevator wondering what would have happened if she did go back to her place alone. He won’t ask her that question because all it’ll do is get him an eye roll and a sarcastic comment about him being her hero. He smiled as he thought about it. 

Will started a pot of coffee and he heard Mac get out of bed. “Will?”

Will took a freshly poured coffee to the breakfast bar and handed it to her. “How’d you sleep?”

“Well, there was this man in bed with me that kept kicking me.”

“I think you have that backwards.”

Will watched as Mac took a long smell of her coffee. After taking a drink, she said, “We’re going to have to get used to a lot now, aren’t we?”

“We did it before. I think we’ll manage.”

Mac looked around and gave herself a tour of the place. It was beautiful, in a sterile, hospital-esque kind of way. Will watched her and realized something. He didn’t want Nina to bring anything over, because this was his place and it would always be his place. Her stuff would have to find niches and nooks to be placed _around_ his, not _with_ his. And that wouldn’t be fair to her. He remembered how her parents decorated their house in Surrey. She could make this place look warm, but she couldn’t make this place her home. 

He walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I was thinking. I want to call Scott and have him list this place and then we can find somewhere else. Someplace that’s ours.”

“But you love this place. It suits you.”

“Maybe, but, I don’t think it suits us. I want, I want to build a home with you. I want us to find a place and make it somewhere we both want to be. And I don’t think this is that place.”

“You want there to be an _our_ place?” Mac sounded confused. He asked her to marry her, so obviously he did, she just… There’s just so much to sort through. “We need to get ready for work.” And they need to talk about a billion different things. A new place to live just isn’t high on that list to Mac. She assumed she would move here because she’s used to moving. She’s been doing it for as long as she can remember. 

But he was offering her something new, something different. Something permanent. A permanent relationship. A new start, a home for them to… to what? To energize? To create relationships and family? She looked at him and she realized this felt as foreign to him as it does to her. He doesn’t know how to live with love any more than she knows how to have something forever. But they taught each other before, and they can relearn it now. 

“Call Scott and tell him to list my place too. And then tell him we need a realtor ready to show us new places on Saturday. That’s the only day we’ll have.”

**2013**

Will read about pregnant women who go through nesting. He doesn’t know why he thought it was a joke or that Mac would magically skip over it. So far, she has experienced everything to a greater degree than either expected, so it should not have surprised him when she demanded that they abandon their half-finished apartment and immediately buy a house in the suburbs. She took the phone from Will’s hand and told Scott _exactly_ what she wanted, right down to the color of the paint in each room. While Scott looked up what color Forsythia Blossom was and how many houses within a 1-hour commute of ACN had it in a 11X12.5 foot room, she kept buying things that they won’t need until the baby is born, which means more things to pack and trip over until a closing date. Their realtor found them to house that met all of Mac’s requirements. And she loved it. 7 months pregnant and she was jumping up and down. Will wasn’t sure that was good for the baby, but he thought someday the baby would understand his father being a little selfish in his relief that she found what she wanted. 

“Isn’t it perfect Will?”

“It is.”

She walked around the living room. “Right here is where we’re going to put the first picture of him. And that’s where our wedding picture will go. We’ll use the basement for our offices and a playroom. We’ll have to build a couple walls. I’ll have warm cookies in the kitchen for him when he comes home from school with his friends. The garage is big enough that you can teach him basic auto mechanics.”

As she went through all the memories they will make, he watched her in awe, like he did the day he went into her control room. This is where she belongs. This is where she will gain her strength. And this will give her the permanence that she never had. 

**2014**

Brandan Charles McAvoy had his first birthday party at the only home he will ever know until he goes on to college and then makes one of his own. The living room had pictures of their family. Not just Will, Mac and Brandon, but Will’s sisters who came to meet their nephew. Mac’s parents who stayed with them for a month just before she went into labor. There was a family picture once all her siblings arrived. Brandon’s room had snapshots of people in the newsroom when he met them, or he came to work with his parents. Or started walking around the bullpen. 

Today the house is filled with family and friends and possibly a few strangers, because Will insists they don’t know this many people. 

Over time, they both learned and lived that this home, was the only thing that mattered. This family – extended and friends – was the only thing worth fighting for. It’s the only thing that lasts. Individually and together, they learned that home is where they get their strength. It’s where they have a sense of permanence. It’s where they feel loved and accepted. It’s the place they belong and always will. 

**Author's Note:**

> Eagle eyed readers may noticed lines stolen from Aaron Sorkin and Sidney Howard or Margaret Mitchell. THe lines were in the movie, but I have feeling they came from the book, I just haven't read Gone with the Wind recently enough to prove it.


End file.
